NEWS

BT Pension Scheme Says Climate Change is Fuelling Food Price Inflation

By Nick Hedley

Extreme weather events directly linked to climate change are already driving food prices higher, BT Pension Scheme’s chair and CEO say in the fund’s annual report.

“Over the past year, the physical effects of climate change have increased, with record temperatures being felt this summer and record low rainfall even across the U.K,” chair Otto Thoresen and CEO Morten Nilsson wrote.

“This has impacted wheat and general crop growth which have had a compounding and negative effect on food prices, as well as rising energy costs.”

Thoresen and Nilsson said efforts would be needed to protect food supply chains and to consider how climate change would impact natural and scare resources.

The plan set a 2035 net-zero goal in October 2020.

Nilsson said in a separate note in the report that climate change “is now a clear and present risk to the scheme meeting its long-term financial commitments – not a future risk.”